Suunto 9 Peak Pro GPS Watch Review

Bottom Line

The Suunto 9 Peak Pro GPS watch defies conventions of a high-performance watch with its sleek design and beautiful titanium outer.

This watch has the capabilities for a multi-day trip, but doesn’t look so turbo that you’d feel weird wearing it around town. Its high-performance processing speed, excellent features, and trim looks make it one of our favorite GPS watches.

The Suunto 9 Peak Pro’s touch screen is one of the best in the business, and we had no problems using it while wet or while wearing gloves. Its noticeably strong processor allows for smooth functions in the watch, rapid storage and analysis of activities, and lag-free performance. However, all that powerful processing and smooth functions take a toll on the battery life. It drains much quicker than advertised and is notably impacted by the cold.

The Suunto 9 Peak Pro’s lack of onboard music storage, no offline maps, and limited smartwatch functionality make it less versatile for dedicated smartwatch use. The companion app also lags behind others, offering less intuitive data analysis and less polished software.

However, its impressive variety of activity modes, strong features, and refined design make it a top contender for anyone seeking a sleek and reliable watch for their next adventure.

How We Tested

We put the Suunto 9 Peak Pro through extensive real-world testing (Alaska-style), using it for trail runs, backcountry skiing, and daily smartwatch tasks to assess its performance across a variety of situations. Over several months, we fully depleted and recharged its battery multiple times to evaluate battery life, wore it for long periods to gauge comfort and usability, and tested its GPS accuracy in diverse terrains and conditions. By integrating the watch into our everyday routines, we ensure our review of the Suunto 9 Peak Pro is comprehensive and grounded in firsthand experience.

Accuracy

Even though it is not a multiband GPS watch, the Suunto 9 Peak Pro tracks distance surprisingly well. It never showed any wavering or extraneous wobbles in the track, regardless of the terrain we took it in. It was usually spot-on in our fixed-distance test and accurately recorded elevation gain without erroneous data points.

However, acquiring an accurate heart rate was noticeably challenging. We chalk this up to the comfort of the band more than the actual watch, as it is hard to get the band adequately tight without being uncomfortable. While we will continue to trust the Peak 9 Pro’s GPS and elevation data, we suggest pairing it with an external heart rate monitor if you’re looking toget the most accurate results.

Battery Life

With a stated GPS battery life of 40 hours and a smartwatch battery life of 21 days, this is about average for a watch of this price point. However, during our field testing, the battery life was much shorter in practice.

The Suunto 9 Peak Pro lost about five to ten percent of battery life per hour of use. Cold also severely impacted it, resulting in a steep decline in battery performance.

While this Peak 9 Pro’s battery is more than enough for daily use, it may not hold up as well for long and cold adventures where access to charging is a challenge.

On the upside, the Peak 9 Pro was one of the fastest-charging watches in our lineup, meaning that it powers back up quickly after depletion.

Comfort & Wearability

The Suunto 9 Peak Pro comes with a standard band. If you want to customize it with a third-party wristband, you can easily remove it with a sliding pin.

The excess tail of the band is secured with a unique metal stud into the adjustment holes of the band. However, this band was one of the more uncomfortable ones we tried, and the watch as a whole did not wear comfortably when in motion. The hard, ninety-degree edges and lack of a curved bevel cause it to dig into the wrist, and the uncomfortable band makes it hard to tighten the watch so it doesn’t jiggle.

With an identical measured and stated weight of fifty-five grams, it’s definitely on the heavier side of our lineup. The extra bulk is noticeable, particularly when wearing gloves or sliding in and out of backpack straps. If you are looking for a low-profile, lightweight watch, you may look elsewhere, but the Peak 9 Pro is still comfortable enough for multi-hour activities.

Features

The Suunto 9 Peak Pro has almost every activity type imaginable; however, narrowing down the selection to your favorites is counterintuitive within the watch’s interface.

Thankfully, the ability to create a custom activity mode within the app and then upload that to the watch is a great feature. We customized activities for different types of running and hiking, where we wanted to see relevant metrics quickly.

While the Peak 9 Pro cannot have maps offline on the watch, it can have routes with turn-by-turn navigation. It can also establish location and navigate to points of interest. Getting to this navigation within the watch’s menu takes some practice with Suunto’s somewhat confusing interface. While it can read and dismiss messages and notifications from a smartwatch, it lacks other functions that make it ideal for daily wear.

Ease of Use

It is both touch screen enabled and has three buttons for selection and menu scrolling. We appreciate that the touch screen responds even when the screen is wet or if we are wearing gloves.

The buttons, on the other hand, are hard to handle with a gloved hand, and we often “fat-fingered” them unintentionally.

We frequently found ourselves puzzled by the watch’s user interface. Narrowing down the number of activities displayed is counterintuitive, and some commonly used features like navigation are buried in a menu.

Additionally, the companion app has hard-to-interpret data analytics and can be finicky to use. The charging cradle is magnetic, which is innovative and great for easy attachment, but it is easily bumped, disengaging the watch from charging. While the Peak 9 Pro leaves some room for improvement in ease of use, navigating to basic functions and activities remains streamlined and simple.

Should You Buy the Suunto 9 Peak Pro GPS Watch?

The Suunto 9 Peak Pro is a svelte watch that blurs the lines between a stylish timepiece and performance hardware.

Its smooth titanium outer is durable and sleek, giving it a posh look unlike GPS watches’ traditional sporty spice vibes. The 9 Peak Pro is most suited for those using this watch for single-day outings since its battery life is not as long-lasting as others in our lineup. Its powerful processor makes it smooth functioning and it is quick to charge.

However, its user interface can be counterintuitive, and the small buttons are easy to push mistakenly. While it lacks many of the features required for daily smartwatch use, the 9 Peak Pro is a powerful option for the daily trainer who still appreciates a well-designed and sleek watch.

What Other Watches Should You Consider?

Want to see what else our team reviewed? See our complete GPS watches gear guide to find your perfect GPS watch. If you’re considering the Suunto 9 Peak Pro, here are some strong competitors:

Coros Apex 2 Pro Review: With a slightly larger display and even more battery life, the Apex 2 Pro is a standard-setting watch perfect for long adventures.

Amazfit T-Rex 3 Review: If you liked the display size of the 9 Peak Pro, but are looking for a larger watch at a lower price, the T-Rex 3 is a great option.

Coros Pace 3 Review: Over a hundred dollars cheaper than the 9 Peak Pro, but still loaded with features, the Pace 3 makes for an excellent budget watch.